Adam The God

They did kick straight though. Both their ruckmen kicked ridiculously acute shots from the boundary that pretty ordinary players shouldn't kick, but did. IMV, it's our ability to execute forward of centre that is the single biggest weakness of ours and has been for 3-4 years.

Really good post. Agree with all of this, except it is hard to know about Choco and Stafford. From the outside looking in, our forwardline is our clear weakness. That said, our midfield has been terrible defending stoppage as of late.

This is it for mine, by a country mile.

To be fair, Collingwood's system enables them to be a bit plug and play, but they were lucky our goalkicking was so abhorrent today.

That's a function of the forward half territory, repeat stoppage game. That said, Collingwood constantly kicked goals from everywhere, where Kozzy and Fritta missed very regulation shots at goal.

Rivers was terrific. Kozzy tried hard but his inaccuracy like Fritta's really costly. The younger players weren't disgraced, McVee, Howes and Windsor all serviceable. Our midfield was shocking, led by Viney who was a liability. Max was intent on grappling all game and was completely nullified by their rucks. The backline misses Lever's leadership and instruction, but I think it's time to work out whether we want to play slingshot and it probably means we need some list changes or revert back to the forward half game style of 2021-2023 that we appeared to play today. Goody isn't getting the sack, nor should he, so we need to look at other ways to improve. Season most definitely shot though.

I'd play Trac out of the goal square and push the other forwards up the ground. Protects his body and back him to win it 1v1 deep.

Collingwood have scored 6.0 from turnover, we've scored 2.5 from turnover. That's the game right there. Season over IMO. But the fall within the space of 3-4 weeks is breathtaking.

Lol, mate, you do the exact same thing.

What, like last week when we looked completely on in the first 10 mins then proceeded to [censored] the bed for the following 3.5 quarters? :P

Exactly, the ruck position is overrated. Look who won the last two flags.

No, he's at a club that has three very good KPBs. He's shown he can basically only play lockdown defender, which means unless there is a third tall match up for him, he's not required. If you've seen Collingwood's forwardline lately, you'll know that they barely have one let alone three tall forwards. We need to go shorter.

Would love that if he has the kms in his legs. Has better goal sense than Chandler IMO. Can't see them making this move given The Age article.

I'd like to throw him back when Lever remains out of the side and play him alongside May and TMac, but that's leaving far too much to JVR and Turner in the air. They're just not experienced enough. So we have a legitimate personnel problem. In the meantime, I agree RE other priorities. We need to get back to forward half, get the ball forward at any cost and take territory, repeat stoppages. As you imply, without the midfield winning enough contest, you can't entirely blame the forwards for the lack of supply. Get the contest right and it protects our backs, play forward half and it protects our backs. As Goodwin and co have clearly conceded, the back half game doesn't suit us. We can still look to play on the counter when territory is against us, but forward half has seen us finish top 4 three years in a row. I hope we make the change, and I hope the players can switch back quick enough or our season is done.

Without knowing exactly what role we're asking each mid to play, it's hard to know whether he's playing his role or is nowhere near it. It does sound like he's nowhere near it. I hadn't caught up on those player ratings. Good old Wheelo.

I was on board and ready for some growing pains with the new game plan's emphasis on counter attack over forward half territory off the back of stoppage, but dishing up 2 deplorable results in 3 weeks suggests we've overcorrected and should revert to a forward half stoppage game that again maximises the talents of Gawn, Oliver, Viney and Petracca in the middle. We lost a QF to the eventual premiers by 7 points, having lost a player to concussion and being forced to activate our sub early in the game and Fritta and TMac both missing extremely gettable shots that they would usually take late in the game. We also missed multiple simple shots (Max's snap from 10m out for example) against Carlton that would have closed out that game that we only lost by 2 points. I think in retrospect we should have held our nerve and gone into this year with the same game style that saw us finish top 4 three years in a row, but with some minor tweaks. The tweaks should have focused on entries like entering 50 with flatter entries (see the practice game against Carlton early this year) and that is something I think that has worked quite well this year. But the rest of our tweaks (deeper defensive set up and less focus on stoppage) haven't really worked and as we pass the half way mark of the year, I think it's time to revert to what we know maximises the strengths of our team and that's a forward half territory game that relies on winning repeat stoppages.

And that's fair. I think we have a very good list, but it does lack balance for good users out of stoppage, so we rely on blunt execution from stoppage, which has been covered ad nauseam. Having the likes of Kozzy at stoppage is clearly hoped to improve our execution out of there. I think we still have 2-4 years of our window and I think we can extend it by targeting a Callaghan type and/or a FA or two.

It's hard to tell until the end of the year. A lot of water to pass under the bridge yet. But no, when someone says the window is closed, that doesn't mean you can open your window with a couple of FAs or "hard trading" (whatever that is). The window being shut means the nucleus of your team (Gawn, Viney, Clarry, Trac, May and Lever) won't win another flag. I think it's too early to call that. You disagree, fine.

I'm arguing that you can have a down year without being out of your window. So you can gloat at the end of the year, but it doesn't answer the question.

What? Where did I say we're a contender? That's putting words in my mouth... There's a difference between your window being shut and not being up to it at the moment. Read my post above, top 4 is probably shot now, and we're now a real shot at missing the 8 altogether.

The point I was making was if the window is shut, you don't go off and top up with FAs, you rebuild instead. As for our problems, we have huge problems, very unlikely we make the top 4. 2 of the last 3 games have been deplorable, plus that first quarter against Carlton. We're completely inconsistent, lurching wildly from heinous to solid. If it continues, we will miss the 8 altogether.

This makes no sense to me. If the flag window was closed, you'd be clearing out and looking to bottom out, not go after FAs. I disagree though. I don't think the window is closed, but we definitely have huge problems.

Demoralising. Utterly demoralising.

It's such a small sample size though that Cal is going with. And all of our mids were invisible early in the game against Carlton. I think we still need to use Trac in the middle, but totally happy with a 60-40 or 65-35 split depending on the game.

I thought someone posted that Frederick wasn't playing? Anyway, he's a handy player and difficult to shut down given his pace. He's a good "in" for them.